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News and Views
Nature 399, 409 (3 June 1999) | doi:10.1038/20802
100 and 50 years ago
100 YEARS AGO
From the hottest to the coldest stars I have found ten groups so distinct from each other chemically that they require to be dealt with separately as completely as do the Cambrian and the Silurian formations.... I have gone further and defined the chemical nature of these stellar genera as the biologist defines the nature of any of his organic genera: we can say, for instance, that the Achernian stars contain chiefly hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen and carbon, and to a certain less extent they contain proto-magnesium, proto-calcium, silicium and sodium, and possibly chlorine and lithium; so that at last, by means of this recent development of spectrum analysis, we have been able really to do for the various stars what the biologist a good many years ago did for the geological strata....
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